Accidents do Happen
by Die Wiederkehr
Summary: Aqua gets hurt while she and Terra are playing. Eraqus does what he can to clean everything up.


This is something little that I came up with while I was roleplaying on Livejournal. I know that Aqua and Terra had to have gotten into mischief as kids and you have to wonder what might have happened in those early years. Especially since Eraqus hadn't been a kid in a long time, and he pretty much raised them.

* * *

Eraqus was enjoying a quiet morning, sitting in the library inside the Land of Departure's castle. He sat comfortably with a book in his lap, ready to relax when one of his apprentices burst into the room. With a soft sigh, he looked up to see Terra's panic stricken face. Young as he was, he certainly had a talent for getting messages across in his expressions and Eraqus was on his feet in moments, closing the little distance between him and the boy. Kneeling down, he lay his hands on Terra shoulders and looked into his eyes:

"What happened?" Eraqus insisted, gently. And that's when the tears started. It took a few minutes for Eraqus to calm him down, but finally, Terra started explaining that he and Aqua were playing, climbing some of the trees near the summit. A moment of icy panic gripped his heart. He'd told them often not to go climbing but he always caught them at it regardless. And this time-

"The branch broke and she fell, and-" Terra's eyes started filling with tears again and Eraqus patted him gently on the head before heading out the door, quickly. He was calm as he approached the summit, not letting his mind run rampant with what condition he may find Aqua in. Ahead he could see the blue haired little girl curled up in a ball under the tree. A large branch lay nearby, leaves scattered everywhere but his focus was on Aqua as she cried and cradled her left arm. As he approached, her shoulders hunched up a bit, prepared for a scolding but what she got instead what him reaching towards her arm and placing a hand on it.

Aqua yelped and pushed herself back further against the tree, crying a littler harder.

"Don't t-touch it…" She rubbed at her eyes when she realized that it was her Master that she had cowered away from. Sniffling, she held her good arm out to him and he carefully scooped her up into his arms. He was careful not to touch her left arm as he carried her through their land and into the castle to her room. Terra was standing next to her door when Eraqus approached with her, and he watched their Master carry her inside. Eraqus looked towards Terra and shook his head, motioning for him to either go outside or to his room before stepping inside and shutting the door.

He gently set Aqua down on her bed for the time being before leaving the room to gather a few items: bandages, ice and something to wrap the ice in before returning to her room. When he returned, Aqua was curled back up in a ball. It struck him suddenly how upsetting this must be for both Aqua and Terra. Terra was barely eight now, and Aqua would be seven soon enough. Neither of them had been injured so severely in the past couple years since he'd brought them to train under him.

Eraqus sat on the edge of her bed and let her climb into his lap, hiccupping a couple times from crying so much before taking the ice from him and putting it on her now swollen arm. And they merely sat like that for some time, Eraqus gently rocking Aqua while she soothed her aching arm.

"Master…" She looked up, big blue eyes tearful once more and even more scared. "Is it broken..?" Slowly, he nodded, not sure he had the strength to say it out loud. If he had, he felt sure that the tears that were now streaming down her face would be much worse and much louder.

"Calm yourself, Aqua. I can Cure most of the injury for you, but you'll have to keep your arm bandaged and keep from using it for a week or so. That way it heals correctly." It was a simple matter to Cure the injury but part of this had to be a learning experience, for both the apprentices. He'd seen Terra's face, so scared for his friend. Slowly, Aqua climbed out of his lap and sat cross legged in front of him, sniffling, and held her broken arm out. The ice had helped the swelling, and it had given enough relief that she could move it slowly towards her Master.

After a moment, Eraqus held his hand over her arm and cast Cure, watching the spell sparkle, and small balls of green energy surround her arm. Once the spell faded, Eraqus took the bandages he had brought along with the ice and carefully began wrapping her arm, tight enough that it wouldn't come loose in her sleep, but not so tight as to cut off her circulation. When he finished, he ran a hand over her hair and watched her start to doze off. After all that, he would have been surprised if she wasn't exhausted and so he tucked her in and closed the curtain in her window before stepping out. Across from her door, Terra sat with his arms wrapped around his knees and his chin on top. And he looked guilty. Raising his hand to motion for Terra to follow him, he lead his oldest apprentice back to the library and sat down, fingers crossed together.

"Terra, what happened today?" He asked calmly, but firmly. He knew something had happened, something more than a branch breaking. Especially since that tree was strong and healthy, a branch did not so easily break from it. Terra stared down at the floor and dug the tip of his boot into the carpet, buying time. When Eraqus cleared his throat, just a bit impatiently, Terra sighed and looked up to the man that had somehow become his father.

"We were just playing. And then we wanted to prove who was braver or who was better at magic…" He said quietly and then stopped. He waited for the Master to say something but he didn't so the boy went on.

"Aqua was trying to prove she could climb higher than me and I was trying to prove I could cast a better spell than her… And my Thunder hit the tree…" Terra sniffled and rubbed under his nose. It was obvious that the boy was feeling guilty for the accident and that in itself was enough of a lesson, Eraqus felt more than sure of that. He knelt down in front of Terra and laid his hands on the boys shoulders.

"You know I tell you what not to do in order to protect you both, Terra. And you both ignored that. Now Aqua will be spending a week or so resting until her arm finishes healing. That means you both won't be training until then. Understand?" Eraqus tilted his head up to look in the boys eyes.

"Yes, Master…" The boy said slowly.

"Come along now, we'll prepare something to eat and surprise Aqua when she wakes up." He said, standing up and guiding Terra from the library and to the kitchen. If only all the issues that arose amongst Master and Apprentice could be so easily remedied.


End file.
